The Red Wings need to score more goals. We’ve been shut out 4 times already this season. Khan(!), in his infinite wisdom, thought it would be a good to ask two defenseman (combined for three goals) and a goalie about how we might generate some more offense. Not exactly what I would call the most reliable source of offensive information, but what-the-hay, let’s give them a chance to speak their minds…

“We got to find a way to generate more offense. That’s not always skill. A lot of it can be determination. We just have to make sure we’re sticking with the guys we got, and the guys that are out there have to be more determined.”–Brad Stuart

Stuey is certainly getting a lot more press time this year. And why not? He’s been our best d-man so far…there I said it. King Lidas has been getting beat, and not just by speed to the outside, but Kandy Kane put a deke on him Sunday and went around him on the inside…very un-Lidstrom like. The captain is still world class, but he appears to be slowing down quicker than some had anticipated. But we’ll save that for another time. Right now, let’s see what he had to say about the offense:

“I think we seen that in the last few games, we can’t rely on scoring on the rush, we have to grind it in the offensive zone, take it to the net and create scoring chances that way. We can’t be trading scoring chances and opening ourselves up defensively. We got to stay patient and play well in our own zone and wait for opportunities on the offensive end.”

Now who could argue with that? Granted, we have guys like Helm, Draper, Datsyuk and even Bertuzzi working hard to get back. But it can be extremely taxing skating full tilt from end to end and then expecting to have any gas left in the tank to make a safe clear out of the D-zone without icing the puck. You follow me?

Next, we talk to Chris Osgood who will probably be seeing a lot of the bench in the short run should Howard catch fire again:

“We got to grind it out, play good defense, give ourselves a chance to win every game, try to pull some games out and get as many points as we can and just hang in there.”

So you heard if from the horses’ mouths, people. The mindset in the locker room seems to be this; play a grinding, determined game until our skilled guys can get healthy and we can get back to Red Wings Hockey.

Speaking of a skilled guy…word is that Valterri Filppula saw a hand specialist and is on track to return on Saturday. This will certainly make the girlfriend happy (and probably yours too, if you have one). We know that Ville Leino is certainly tapping his toe, waiting for Wally to get back out there so he can get on the scoresheet again.